Living On The Edge Again (Part 3)
Growing up we watched Charleton Heston stand before the burning bush and receive the Ten Commandments. It seemed to be an annual event like the Wizard of Oz. It was one of those movies that became a big part of my childhood. Moses would come down off of the mountain and see the Israelites worshipping that golden calf and throw the tablets. So growing up I knew as a certainty that there were ten laws that God had set as the standard for everyone to live by. Most of them are pretty simple. Killing, stealing, remember the Sabbath, no idols, worship only God, do not take the Lord’s name in vain, and honor thy mother and father were pretty clear to a child. Adultery, coveting and false witness I understood as I started getting a little older. During my search for the meaning of life, I quit attending church to seek the “real truth”. Low and behold, I came full circle back to my starting place. My parents must have actually known something after all. When I finally found Christ and accepted Him as my rock and foundation, I discovered an eleventh commandment. It took me a while to grasp the concept of one more rule to live by until I realized that it took the other rules and summed them up.
John 15:12
This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
So now I have a direct quote from Jesus telling me that I am to love everyone, just as he loved everyone. That was easy until I figured out who everyone was. The Bible very clearly points out that Jesus did not hang out with people like him. He started out as a carpenter. So you figure he would hang out with people in the building trades; maybe a brick layer or an architect. No, Jesus chose to hang around those people that had been forgotten or simply written off by those in power. It was lepers, prostitutes, and tax collectors. I can’t say any of those are on my list of people I seek out to talk to. But it does represent the groups that were either despised or ignored. I find that there are the same things going on today. Apparently Christ’s commandment does not carry the same weight as the first 10. We have minorities and gays to replace the lepers and prostitutes and these groups are treated in similar ways to those groups. I feel sorry for the IRS agents. I just can’t get my arms around giving Caesar his due but then again, that hasn’t changed.
There is still a large segment of the population that does not understand the message. Christ commanded us to love everyone. He does not allow for escape clauses simply because we do not want to. It is not peppered with exceptions to the rule or any other changes we wish to make. Ignoring it does not make the 11th commandment any less powerful. For a Christian, this should be the center of faith. This is the core upon which all the other teachings are based. I do not understand how someone can ignore “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you” and still profess to call themselves a follower of Christ. That however, leads me to part four of this entry. Until then…..
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Luke 6:37
Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:
Icool
Cobb
John 15:12
This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
So now I have a direct quote from Jesus telling me that I am to love everyone, just as he loved everyone. That was easy until I figured out who everyone was. The Bible very clearly points out that Jesus did not hang out with people like him. He started out as a carpenter. So you figure he would hang out with people in the building trades; maybe a brick layer or an architect. No, Jesus chose to hang around those people that had been forgotten or simply written off by those in power. It was lepers, prostitutes, and tax collectors. I can’t say any of those are on my list of people I seek out to talk to. But it does represent the groups that were either despised or ignored. I find that there are the same things going on today. Apparently Christ’s commandment does not carry the same weight as the first 10. We have minorities and gays to replace the lepers and prostitutes and these groups are treated in similar ways to those groups. I feel sorry for the IRS agents. I just can’t get my arms around giving Caesar his due but then again, that hasn’t changed.
There is still a large segment of the population that does not understand the message. Christ commanded us to love everyone. He does not allow for escape clauses simply because we do not want to. It is not peppered with exceptions to the rule or any other changes we wish to make. Ignoring it does not make the 11th commandment any less powerful. For a Christian, this should be the center of faith. This is the core upon which all the other teachings are based. I do not understand how someone can ignore “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you” and still profess to call themselves a follower of Christ. That however, leads me to part four of this entry. Until then…..
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Luke 6:37
Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:
Icool
Cobb
posted by Cobb at
7:41 AM
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